Last November a private company, Uwingu, launched a fundraising contest in which participants could suggest names for exoplanets for 99 cents. The public could then vote on their favorites. This idea …

It has been nearly 60 years since the first photograph of the Earth was taken from space. Back in 1946, years before Sputnik, a 35-millimeter motion picture camera riding on a V-2 missile was launched …

In recent months it has appeared likely that Voyager 1, a probe launched in 1977, has gone beyond our solar system but now it’s official: the spacecraft has left the building. This makes it the first …

The rover Curiosity recently found that, in the distant past of Mars, conditions were entirely suitable to microbial life as we know it. This increases the likelihood that life once might have existed …